A Change so Profound
by snipsa
Summary: Completely AU! What if there was no boy who lived? What would have happened if Harry could grow up as just another kid in the wizarding world? Voldemort is still out there and growing stronger. Will Harry and his sister be able to fulfill the prophecy?
1. Prologue

**A change so profound**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own any of the characters created by JK Rowling. Please don't sue, I'm only writing because it is so much fun!

**Prologue**

Three and a half year old Harry James Potter couldn't quite understand the excitement that permeated his household. His daddy had explained that he was getting a sister that week, but he didn't understand why that made everybody so happy. He wasn't certain if he even wanted a sister. He liked playing with his friends, as well as his parents, and wasn't sure if they would still have time for him if his sister was around.

Alas, little Harry Potter had no control over things like the addition of siblings, and had to contend himself with the fact that his life was about to change…

Change, wouldn't even begin to explain the impact that this little girl's birth would have on his, and his entire family's lives.

A prophecy had been made more than four years ago, by a seer that before that evening had never seen before, but that prophecy was not heard, and the plans that fate had made could not be brought to fruition.

Harry James Potter was never supposed to have a family, was never supposed to have a place that he could freely and happily call home, and most importantly, Harry James Potter was never supposed to have a sister.

Thus fate intervened, and in a moment swift, changed the course of not only one little boy's life, but the lives of countless wizards, magical creatures and muggles alike.

Exactly three years after the first prophecy was made, a new prophecy was rendered, only this time it was made in the company of a group of teachers that were sat around the Headmaster's office. They were in the middle of their weekly teacher's conference, when one amongst them quite suddenly, and unpredictably, a seer that had only once seen before, was rendered the bearer of fate yet again…

Soon after hearing the prophecy, upon the other's permission, only a single mind remained with the knowledge of what was said. For the wise headmaster had known; that were the contents of this prophecy to fall in the hands of the one that were to be destroyed, all their lives could well be ruined forever.

For this prophecy contained the great and unexpected news of salvation for all, by one who was yet to be born.

_The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches. Born as the sun rises on the day of love. Born to those who hath defied him half a score. But the lord shall not know, as the one who should have been looks after the chosen. And one shall sacrifice so that others may live. The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches…_


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Nine-year-old Harry Potter was starting to believe that he was experiencing a summer like none other. On the first of July his parents had surprised him and his younger sister with a holiday for the family to the Dragon Colonies in Romania.

After three floo trips and four different portkey "pit-stops", as his mom was fond of calling them, they had finally arrived at their destination. They booked into the bed and breakfast that would be called their home for a month, where after Harry and his dad left on an accompanied trip of the reserve, whilst his mom and sister relaxed after the long journey.

It turned out that their guide of the preserve was a new recruit, who just happened to be the brother of one of Harry's friends back home. Charlie Weasley was delighted to show his fellow Brits around the pastures, and regaled them with stories of all the different animals.

Whilst the preserve was best known for its ample dragons, there were plenty of other fascinating creatures that called the colonies their homes.

Harry was fascinated by the Cerastes, a small, horned serpent that according to Charlie had no spine. The way that it could manipulate its body into countless different directions had left Harry mystified.

That evening Harry read up on the small snake and found that the muggle artist Leonardo Da Vinci might have happened across one of these little animals, for he was quoted to have said that "_His has four movable little horns; so, when it wants to feed, it hides under leaves all of its body except these little horns which, as they move, seem to the birds to be some small worms at play. Then they immediately swoop down to pick them and the Cerastes suddenly twines round them and encircles and devours them"_

A bit barbaric maybe, but it sounded like a great way to hunt in Harry's opinion - to lead your prey to a false sense of superiority before turning their game plan against them.

It was not only this small animal that had caught Harry's attention. Many of the creatures thought mythical by muggles were represented in the colony. Unfortunately there were also many a creatures' fossils to display in the central museum, for as many a percentage muggle animals had been brought extinct, so too had many magical creatures. The cause for most of those animals' extinctions could be traced back to the 13th Century BC, during the times of the Trojan War; very accurately depicted in the works of Homer and his fellow authors.

At the end of their guided tour the party of three entered a massive arena where a pair of Nordic fire-breathing dragons was enclosed. These specific dragons only mated every third century, as they could live to be well over two millennia old. The entire preserve was buzzing with the excitement and preparation for the upcoming event. Harry and James dearly hoped that they would still be there when this once in a lifetime event was to happen.

As the day slowly faded into night Harry unequivocally told his parents that he was going to work on a preserve such as this when he was a grown up. James took it in stride, for he knew that when he was Harry's age he had strongly believed that he would be a band-member when he was all grown up, quite a far cry from the seasoned auror he turned out to be. Lily however, was already imagining the horror of her baby boy being burned to a crisp by an errant dragon.

As the weeks passed on the preserve, Harry became a shadow to Charlie Weasley.

James and Lily, along with their five year old daughter Hazel divided their time between lounging about in their rooms, playing games in the pool and going on day trips through the reserve. Meanwhile, Harry had taken his objective of becoming a ranger when he was older very seriously and could be found helping the other rangers feed the smaller animals, as well as cleaning out the cages when the animals were removed for some exercise.

Many nights Lily found her oldest son sitting in his room, scouring through books on some animal or another. It had gotten to such a point that she and James decided an intervention might be necessary. Unbeknownst to them, Harry had however already received a talk from Charlie about spending a bit less time with the animals and rangers and more with his parents.

* * *

So it had been, that Harry decided to pull a prank on his notoriously un-prankable dad, unfortunately it seemed his mom also had to be caught in the crossfire.

On the eve of their fortnight in the preserve James and Lily, after putting little Hazel to bed, asked Harry to join them for a late-night snack. Realizing the true reason for the invitation Harry decided to put his prank into action.

Descending the stairs into the kitchen Harry loudly proclaimed that he had agreed to an apprenticeship with Charlie Weasley, and that he was to stay at the preserve for the next five years. He fished out a book on apprenticeships, which clearly stated that any person over the age of nine could be entered into such an apprenticeship, as long as their guardians accepted the agreement, and all magical fields were covered in the course of the apprenticeship.

The reactions were instantaneous, whilst his dad was telling him in no few words just how small a chance there were of them accepting such an agreement, his mom was ranting about red-headed boys, cauldrons and skinning people who thought they could put insane ideas into the heads of easily influenced kids, alive.

Harry kept his expression schooled for as long as possible, but finally a smile cracked through his defences, and it wasn't long before a laugh also escaped.

It was at this sound that his parents turned to him, thunderous expressions on both faces. Lily turned out to be the one to get her voice back first.

"What! This is no laughing matter young man! I'm going to kill that Weasley, and then leave him for Molly to slaughter further. She'll understand; after all she is a mother herself! Oh, by Merlin, if I hear any other ludicrous words like that come out of your mouth again, I'll wash it out with soap!"

This seemed to only increase Harry's laughter, which in turn had his parents' anger reaching dangerous levels.

Harry decided that he might want to preserve his life and diffuse the situation while he still had the chance.

"I'm sorry, but you guys should have seen your faces! I have to complement you mom, with that vocabulary and particular facial expressions, I would never want to get on your bad side!"

Seeing that this statement only served to confuse his parents, which could possibly fuel their anger even more, he quickly decided to continue.

"I really did have a talk with Charlie Weasley, but it was about me spending a bit less time with the rangers and him, and a bit more with you guys. I'm sorry that I've been such a bad son this holidays, I mean, here you guys go and arrange this great vacation, and what do I do? At the first opportunity, I leave you in the dust, and go my own merry way. I promise, I'll spend more time with you and Hazel from here on out, but I still want to spend some time with the other guys. I really like the animals…"

It seemed his parents were tag-teaming this round, for it was his dad that spoke next.

"So all this about the apprenticeship, and you leaving for five years, that was all some sort of joke! What on earth possessed you to say such a thing?!"

Seeing that his parents were quickly becoming angry again, Harry had to admit, at least to himself, that it might not have been the best prank he had ever pulled. But he started it, so he just had to push through to the end.

"Well, we did talk about an apprenticeship…" Seeing his parents' fury rise again, he quickly continued once more. "However, the apprenticeship we were discussing was something that I'll only sign into during my final two years of schooling - part-time, and after my schooling – full-time. So it's still many years off, and I'll have to work very hard in school to even be granted such an apprenticeship, for according to Charlie, I'll have to be in the top 3 of my grade if I want to start it whilst still at Hogwarts."

It seemed that he had finally said the right things, for his parents soon calmed down, and was apparently contemplating all they had been told.

"Well, I guess that your dad and I could possibly agree to something like that in the future, as long as you apply yourself in all areas of your studies, and promise that you'll behave yourself at all times whilst away from school and classes there. But, that is still a long time off, and for now, let's just enjoy the rest of the holiday!" Lily ended her monologue with a flourish, before wrapping her son in a hug.

"Mom!" Harry, quickly leapt from the hug, as if his mom had lepers, before straightening his back, "I'm nine years old! What will the other kids say if they knew you still hugged me?"

Lily playfully wiped away non-existing tears, all the while muttering about little boys, all grown up.

"So what was all that about, why lie about the apprenticeship?" His dad enquired, once both his wife and son had calmed down sufficiently.

Harry put on his best smug look before replying haughtily, "Well you always said nobody could prank you, I just proved you wrong!" And with that he ran up the stairs to his room, his dad hot on his heels.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

The day following Harry's promise to spend more time with his Parents and Hazel found the family relaxing in the pool that was located on the preserve. Harry and Hazel were playing pool volleyball, although Hazel had very little chance of hitting the ball, whilst their parents lay in the sun, enjoying the chance to add some colour to their normally pale complexions.

Harry was a keen sportsman; playing both football, or soccer as it's better known to the yanks, and cricket at the muggle primary school he was enrolled in.

A compromise had been made between his parents, James agreeing to let Harry enrol in muggle primary school, as long as Lily would agree to some basic spell-casting and potion tutoring for Harry once he reached the age of nine.

It was a well-known fact amongst pure-blood circles that children were allowed to use a wand at home, as long as it was not their own wand, which had the ministry's tracking charm inserted as soon as it was bought – a fact that was conveniently kept silent when in the company of muggleborns.

James had taken an instant liking to football, seeing the similarities between the game and his much beloved quidditch. It had however taken many months for him to warm up to the game of cricket, initially thinking it pedantic, hard to follow and boring.

After five months of watching his son play, and moaning about the rules being arcane and difficult to follow, Lily finally sat James down and told him to suck it up, keep quiet and try to put up a happy face on for their child, who was obviously enjoying himself.

Taking his wife's advice to heart James had spent the next couple of months silently watching the game, reading up on the rules and spending some time watching International games on the telly that Lily had insisted they get when they realized they lived far enough from the magical community for electricity to work in their home. It turned out that even though Lily had insisted on it, it was James that took the most advantage of the device, which left Lily to comment on more than one occasion about men being men, no matter whether they were muggle or magical.

After approximately three months of watching, studying and reading up on the game, James could freely admit that the amount of strategy involved, skills needed to play at the highest level, and physical strength required to play a five-day test match was just as hard to achieve as the other sports he so enjoyed. So it came that the entire Potter household was known for their absolute love of all things sport, be it muggle or magical.

Hazel could often be seen with a basketball in the one hand and a snitch in the other. She of course couldn't yet play either game, although she did take some tennis classes, which she enjoyed, but she professed that she would much rather play a team sport like quidditch or even netball, than the racquet sport.

Thus it was that brother and sister spent the morning playing pool volleyball, where after they joined some of the other kids that were on holiday in the preserve for a basketball match. Since Hazel was still too small to take part in the game, she was nominated as the referee, a position she took to with gusto.

During lunch, something unexpected and worrying happened. Fawkes, the phoenix of Albus Dumbledore - the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, arrived with a flourish of fire and song, a letter rolled up in his talons, which he extended to a pale faced James.

If at all possible his face lost even more colour as he quickly scanned the note, before passing it to a distressed Lily. It was quite short, and to the point, not exactly Albus' normal style, but then again, it wasn't a normal type of correspondence.

_James,_

_Death Eaters are attacking Diagon Alley. Didn't want to disturb your holiday, but we need help! Grab hold of Fawkes._

_Albus_

With a final weak smile to Lily and a wink to his kids, James was literally gone in a flash.

* * *

Arriving in the battlefield that was Diagon Alley, James had the irrational urge to plead with Fawkes to take him back to his family. The Alley seemed to be in ruins, with people of all ages and sizes, strewn about like rag dolls. It was obvious that the Death Eaters were holding their own, if not winning the current battle.

Three masked Death Eaters could be seen battling an obviously tiring Albus Dumbledore. Mad-Eye Moody, James' mentor and close friend was holding his own against two opponents. Unfortunately others were not as lucky. Georgina Boot had just been struck by the ominous green light of a killing curse when James landed in the battle. He could also see Annika Bones, mother of young Susan Bones, lying lifeless on the ground, most probably victim to the same curse. The unearthly scream of Amelia Bones noticing her sister's demise echoed through-out the Alley.

Countless others, whom James had seen around the Alley before, were ominously still as they lay on the ground in the middle of the battle. Quickly pushing away the feelings of helplessness he was experiencing James jumped into the battle, throwing curses left and right. The sorry state of affairs only seemed to fuel him on in his quest to exact some kind of revenge on the heartless perpetrators.

Two masked men had already fallen as a result of James' flourishing wand movements. It had been early on in James' career as an auror that Moody, with the backing of Albus, Scrimgeour, Bones and most of the auror squad had been able to win all aurors the right to use unforgiveables if the opposition had used it first. Thus it was that James sent green lights everywhere he could see one of the Death Eaters, especially towards those who were busy torturing innocents.

The entire alley reeked of dark magic, wielded on both sides of the fight, and it was clear that repairs would take months to finish, even with the aid of magic.

James finally spotted his best friend, right in the middle of the battle, as James had known he would be. Sirius Black was fighting his cousin Bellatrix from the front, and had to put up a magnificent display of dodging to avoid the curses thrown from random death eaters from his back. Quickly deciding that his friends' side was the best place to be in this fight, James joined Sirius, the two of them fighting back-to-back. A well-oiled machine, that had there been time, might have left others marvelling at the fluidity of the two men's movements as well as the way they both kept each other's backs.

In no time they had Bellatrix Lestrange cornered against a wall, but just as James was about to send the curse that would end her life, she vanished after softly whispering the keyword needed to activate her portkey.

Sirius and James had no time to lament that fact, as they were soon back in the action, fighting death eaters from all sides. It was however when Sirius sent a very dangerous cutting curse to one of their oppositions, which cleanly removed the man's arm from its shoulder socket that the two men received a very unpleasant and frightening surprise.

The man whose arm Sirius had just severed turned into a very familiar rat, the only difference being that the rat now missed a front paw. The two men stared at each other in shocked silence, both contemplating what they had just witnessed and what it could mean. Before they could continue in their contemplation however, there was a loud shout from behind them, and before either man could move a blue light hit Sirius in the middle of his back.

Sirius looked at James, pain seemingly visible in every pore of his being, before slowly falling to the ground.

* * *

Meanwhile, the Potters that had remained in Romania were fretting about their dad and husband respectively. A few minutes after he had grabbed hold of Fawkes' tail, Lily and the children had left the picnic area where they had been enjoying their lunch, none of them in the mood for food any longer.

Harry was comforting a distraught Hazel, who couldn't understand why her dad had left them, whilst Lily was pacing anxiously. Lily finally decided that worrying could not help the situation, so she told the children that they were all going to the arena where the two fire-breathing dragons were situated, and that they would spend the rest of their afternoon there. Harry had looked a bit reluctant; he didn't want to go anywhere if his dad could possibly be lying hurt somewhere at that exact moment, but he realized that they all needed the distraction.

So it was that the normally cheerful family solemnly went to the arena, no smiles in sight.

Charlie could see something was wrong the moment he spied their faces, and quickly excused himself from the conversation he was having with some fellow rangers. Noticing that James was not with the rest of the family he had a good idea what might have happened.

"Order business?" He asked Lily softly when he joined the young woman and her children.

"There's an attack on Diagon, Dumbledore sent Fawkes to fetch James." Lily replied just as softly, her hands shaking slightly.

Charlie gave a soft gasp at the news; it was even worse than he had feared. Giving Lily's hand a quick squeeze he softly reassured her that James would be alright; fighting dark wizards was his job, and he was very good at it. Lily gave a small smile at the reassurance, although she didn't comment. She wouldn't be truly reassured until she saw her husband standing unhurt in front of her own eyes.

Two minutes of silence followed, with the entire group in thought, only the occasional silent sob of Hazel, who still clung to her older brother, could be heard.

This silence was however broken by a very loud noise. All four of them looked up in shock, and marvelled at the sight in front of them. The two dragons had simultaneously started breathing fire all around them. Only their silhouettes could be seen through the flames and smoke, but everybody there would forever swear that the dragons were performing a very complicated, excellently choreographed dance.

The three Potters watched transfixed as the two giant dragons completed their mating routine, a feeling of happiness and hope washing over all those in attendance.

Harry saw silent tears falling from his mom's eyes, a smile gracing her lips. Before he could comment, he heard her soft voice.

"James will be alright. The dragons showed me." Frowning at the odd look in his mom's eyes as well as the words she spoke, he stood as his mother took Hazel's little hand and left the arena, the smile still firmly in place on her face.


	4. Chapter 3

James watched in shocked horror as Sirius fell to the ground. He'd heard the curse that was uttered - _caedo viscus._ It was one of the more deadly curses known to wizardry that was not considered an Unforgiveable. It literally killed the organs inside the body, slowly spreading its poison as it went through the system. If a victim didn't receive medical attention within five minutes there was no hope, and even when help was reached in time, the odds of surviving were still quite low.

He quickly summoned a rock that was a few metres in front of him, casting the portus charm on it, along with the necessary code and password to get Sirius through the wards of St. Mungo's. James could only pray that he had acted fast enough, and that the healers would be able to save his friend. With a final worried glance at his friend, who looked like death warmed over, he tossed the self-made portkey to Sirius who was instantly swept out of the fight. Realizing that there was nothing else he could do for his friend, James returned to the fight, a noticeable change in his fighting style. James Leonard Potter was angry.

Whilst covering his back from cowardice Death Eaters that sent spells from behind, James quickly joined Albus as he fought at least four people from all sides. Noticing the help Albus' noticeably dull eyes regained a bit of its infamous twinkle, subdued though it was, at least it had returned.

Both men covered the other's backs as effectively as Sirius and James had done, not more than ten minutes before.

They had a very similar fighting style, transfiguring objects around them to act as shields whilst they sent curse after curse at their weakening enemies.

When James had been in his second year at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall had noticed that James had a natural talent for transfigurations. Minerva had commented that she had not seen anything like the talent he displayed in all her years of teaching. This led to the headmaster getting intimately involved in tutoring James in the fine art. The people that had known of the arrangement truly believed then, and still did believe, that after Albus had finished teaching the craft to James he would only be second to one person in that particular talent, and that person had been his Mentor.

The two men were finally able to defeat the four people that had been tormenting Albus, it was only after the fourth man had fallen that James noticed that most of the other Death Eaters were either restrained, incapacitated, or had fled.

"It seems we live to fight another day." The words sounded callous, but James was alarmed to hear the weariness in Albus' voice.

"The key word being live, let's just be glad that we're alive." Whilst speaking these words, James' features paled. "Sirius", he whispered weakly.

Hearing the despaired whisper Albus' eyes quickly swept the battlefield, trying to ascertain where the more rambunctious Marauder was at. Worry plagued him as he searched each face, unable to find the man he was looking for.

He turned to the panicking James, afraid of the answer he would receive.

"James, what happened, where is Sirius?"

James lifted trembling hands to his face, trying to wipe away the fatigue he felt. He swiftly told Albus what curse had hit Sirius, he couldn't think of anything except the last glance he had had of his friend. He had truly looked dead.

"Go to St. Mungo's James. I'll handle things here." Seeing that James wanted to argue Albus lifted a hand, effectively stopping any argument. "There's not much for you to do here James, go and assuage your fears regarding Sirius. We owe you for the help today." Albus said the last part very earnestly; he realized that he was indebted to the other man for coming to their aid.

"It's my job Albus, and I was glad for the little I could help." James thought back on the battle, realizing that he made some difference that day, it was however whilst thinking about the battle that he remembered the traitor that had been exposed. His hands clenched as he thought back to that moment where one of his best friends had been exposed as one of the enemy.

Albus noticed the change in the other man, saw the clenching of hands and jaw, and realized that something else must have happened as well.

"James?" Albus spoke the name softly, feeling slightly uneasy, something he rarely felt.

"Pettigrew!" The name was spat with such venom that Albus took an unconscious step backward. Before he could question the statement James continued.

"He was fighting. We didn't know it was him, but Sirius sent a cutting curse at him, Merlin he chopped of his arm with that curse, but we didn't know. He was wearing a mask, he was sending bloody killing curses at us and others, he was… no he IS a Death Eater…" Albus couldn't believe what he was hearing. Timid Peter Pettigrew, a man believed to be afraid of his own shadow, a Death Eater? It wasn't possible.

"Are you certain James, you say that the person you were fighting was wearing a mask, perhaps he had just resembled Peter?"

"Bloody Hell Albus, it was Peter okay! He had red hair, he was short, he was a bit pudgy, and you know what, we still didn't see! We didn't see for all these years! He was my friend, my kids call him Uncle Peter for Merlin's sake, and all this time, all these years he's been in league with the man that we pledged to fight and destroy. All these years he's been having me for a fool! They call him Uncle Peter!"

Albus had been surprised at the initial outburst, James Potter rarely swore. It was difficult to keep up with James' ramblings. It was however clear that he was convinced that one of the Death Eaters that had fought in the day's battle had been Peter Pettigrew, but Albus still wasn't sure what had led the man to this conviction.

"How is it that you are so certain James?" He was slightly afraid that the question would only spark another ramble, however Albus was surprised at the answer the man gave.

"He turned into his rat form. Right after Sirius had chopped of his arm, he turned into that gawky, dirty rat. I would recognize him anywhere, just as I would Sirius, even Moony has some distinguishing traits. He turned into the sneaky, traitorous, cowardice rat he is and ran away." Albus paled at the news. He had learned of the Marauder's Animagus forms a number of years earlier, they had remained unregistered, seeing as their forms were invaluable spying aids.

"This is very distressing news James, but we will deal with it later. I will call an emergency Order meeting for this evening. I am so sorry to even suggest this, but it would probably be best if you cut your holiday short. We will need all the help we can get in the coming days, and you and Lily are invaluable." James gave a curt nod, relating that he understood the message and agreed with the other man. They quickly parted ways after that; Albus went to assist the others and assess the damage, whilst James apparated to the outskirts of St Mungo's.

* * *

Lily had no idea what it was that she had experienced during the Dragons' mating ritual. The one moment she had been watching the two amazing creatures, the next thing she knew fog surrounded her, and she could barely recognize the Dragons through the haziness.

After a couple of seconds had passed, images flashed in front of the fog. She could see James grabbing her in a hug, the reception desk at St. Mungo's to their right. James however didn't look injured in the slightest. The next was an image of her son, but he looked a bit older than present, he had an expression of intense concentration on his face, before a magnificent white light erupted from his wand.

Other images flashed by, each faster than the previous.

A boy and girl, who could only be Harry and Hazel, featured in many of them, but the images were of them at different ages. Some of the images were awfully disturbing. One of the pictures featured a glimpse of an older Harry lying on the ground, blood pouring from beneath his head. Another where Hazel was crying hysterically, at least she thought it was Hazel, but she had been a lot older, probably at least twelve.

Other images were of Lily and James, many featured them smiling proudly, but on some of the images it was clear that they were worried or angry, however the ones that frightened her most were the images of her James with grieve covering their features. She had never seen anybody that looked as broken as the two of them in those images.

The last image hovered in front of the fog for at least two seconds, it was of the two of them, arms around each other, with both Harry, who was probably almost eighteen, and Hazel, who had to be a bit older than fourteen, standing next to them, smiles on all their faces, no grieve, worry or anger in sight.

It was this final picture that left Lily with a smile on her face, for with it came the knowledge that no matter what they had to go through in order to get to that point, they had a magnificent future to look forward to, and that they would get there together.


End file.
